Camden took his first steps tonight!

Well, I made that last post a little too soon tonight because Camden just took his first steps. He took 2 steps and fell down, then we stood him back up and he took 2 more steps and fell again, and we stood him up a 3rd time and he took 4 steps before falling down. It's not as exciting as his first step, but he also started pointing today (it's worth mentioning because it was one of the questions the nurse asked me at his 9 month appointment and said that he should start pointing soon, and at the time he hadn't). He still hasn't said his first word, other than a string of da da da da da da, but he doesn't seem to associate da da with Jonmark. However, he does appear to be trying to form words. When he waves bye bye he makes a sound twice as if he's trying to say bye bye. When the phone rings he looks over at it and says something that sounds like hello, but it's just a sound, but always the same sound so it's like he knows what he's saying. Tonight he pointed at the fish on my dad's laptop and sounded like he was trying to say fish. He's learning so much so fast now! I love newborn babies, and I'll miss the baby that just stays there when you put him down, but I do love it when they turn into little sponges that soak up everything you try to teach them. He may not be a tiny baby anymore, but we still have so much to look forward to with him and Mykenzi (and hopefully more in the future).

Camden's 9 Month Stats

Camden had his 9 month checkup on Tuesday. He weighs 19 lbs. and is 28.5 inches. Every day he gets closer and closer to taking his first steps. He's standing so well by himself now that we can just put him down on his feet and he stands up tall. He takes steps as long as you're holding him, and will try to take a step when he's standing alone, but it's as if he can't just figure out how to work his legs yet, they just shake a little as he stands. We've even tried to trick him by holding one of his hands (walking along side him) or holding him under his arms and letting go, but he figures it out and will just sit down on the floor. He's a lot stronger though and not falling down on his hinnie anymore, and is more controlled now, able to sit down from a standing position and even sometimes stand from a sitting position (putting his hands on the floor in front of him). Mykenzi was 9 months 3 weeks old when she started walking, maybe Camden will start around the same time. I like to help him learn, but I'm really in no hurry for him to start walking, he gets into plenty just crawling and pulling up!

Camden's 9 Month Pictures

I know these aren't the greatest, but our little man is 9 months old and we wanted to capture that as best as I could. Unfortuately I think I may still need to use the portrait studios, but I actually thought some of these looked better before I posted them here. I might have to try again with a few adjustments after studying these, but I wanted to post some pictures of Camden since I haven't in a while.

I have no idea how much Camden weighs or how tall/long he is, but he has his well check on Tuesday so I'll post it then. He is crawling all over the place, pulling up on everything, walking along furniture, and even letting go of things to stand all on his own. He still loves to reach his arms way up high when we say he's so big, claps for himself, will give us five, give kisses, and wave bye bye. He especially loves to dance! He loves his big sister so much that just the sound of her singing voice starts him dancing or rocking back and forth. He's amazed by the t.v. and so far really seems to enjoy the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Mykenzi didn't care for t.v. shows until she was about 2 1/2 years old, but whenever Camden hears it on (because Mykenzi's watching) he'll stop whatever he's doing, sit really still, and just stare at the t.v. He's just like a man watching sports! He's starting to enjoy food finally, mainly table food, which he hasn't had too much of yet, but it's probably time to start introducing more foods. Camden is still a very good baby, only crying when he's really tired, Mykenzi is being a little rough with him, or the dog licks him to death (disgusting!), but he still is not sleeping through the night! Mykenzi slept through the night at 6 weeks. Why can't they all be like that? Actually I say Camden doesn't sleep through the night, but I guess he does if you consider waking up at 5:00 or 5:30 a.m. sleeping through the night. No matter what time he goes to sleep, he still wakes up around that time, and is ready to play for a few hours before finally sleeping again!

Enjoy the pictures, and please post comments here or email me to let me know what you think, if you have any thoughts on any of these. Tell me your favorite if there is one!

I like this picture because Camden sits like this a lot. We know he's sitting like a little cheerleader, but that's how he sits a lot of the time. Weird, I know!

This is probably the best one as far as printing goes. I know some people would say that the fact that he's not looking at the camera makes it a bad picture, but I tend to like those looking away.

I love this picture because this is Camden doing "so big" so this is something we see quite a bit of. Even though his hands are cut off in the picture and you can't see his face, I love it because I know that's something he does all the time.

Here he's saying one of his new things, "ooooh WA." The WA in capitals because he goes from a normal tone to a yell with the WA. He likes for you to say it and then he'll repeat and this can go on and on.

More practice with Mykenzi...

Seeing these pictures of Mykenzi reminds me of how quickly she is growing up!

My little drama queen did this one all on her own. She asked me if I wanted her to lay down, so I said sure, and this is how she posed. Jonmark and I are really worried about the future with her now! She's such a prissy girl sometimes!

Working to catch on video...

Camden has learned to do a lot of new things recently, and I've been trying to catch it on video but that's very difficult since he wants to crawl up and swat at the hanging lens cap (or just take the camera from me). Since learning to clap in December (which he'll just crawl along, sit up, and start clapping for no apparent reason), Camden has also learned to give five. He's also quite the little dancer. At the sound of any sort of rhythm, not just music, he starts rocking back forth and bouncing up and down. They have a toy car that clicks and pops as it rolls, and any time Camden hears Mykenzi playing with it he starts dancing. Jonmark can even make sounds with his mouth, and Camden will start dancing. Camden is also waving bye bye now. It's not quite a wave up in the air, but when he hears you say bye bye and wave to him, he bends his fingers back and forth on both hands (only to himself, which is what most babies do because that's what they see I guess, or at least that's what Mykenzi did at first). This is really cute because sometimes (in addition to the big smile on his face over being so proud of himself) he just looks at his hands like, "hey, I didn't know they could do that." The last of the latest things he's learned (that we're proud of) is how he raises his arms up high in the air when he hears you say, "Camden's so big."

You're probably curious why I said "the latest things he's learned that we're proud of." Well that's because Camden has also found the toilet and loves to splash in water. Fortunately this only happened 3 times in one day before we all remembered to put the toilet seat down from now on. I say we, but Jonmark was at work, so this was really on Mykenzi and I, but we informed Daddy of the new rule when he came home that day, and Camden hasn't been in the toilet again since. Although he does try every chance he gets!

I wish I would have had a camera on me today when we went out to lunch. I let Camden have a lemon wedge, and he loved it! We only saw a sour face twice, but he kept working on that lemon. It was a very thin lemon wedge, so there were two on my glass, and when he finished with the first one he moved on to the second one like it was the best tasting food he'd ever eaten. When your favorite thing to eat is formula and bananas I would imagine a lemon would taste good. Yes, Camden only likes bananas. He's had all the baby food, several times over, and he's not impressed with anything except bananas (basically any baby food with bananas except the Apple Strawberry Banana). I've been thinking that maybe he just doesn't like the texture of the baby food (I don't like anything like that, pudding, yogurt, whip cream, etc.), but I've given him cut up pieces of green beans and carrots from my plate, and he didn't like those either, spit them out every time. I'm going to try some diced fruit tomorrow and see how that goes, but so far, he's not much of an eater (unless it's formula in a bottle of course).

Now trying to write...

Over the years Mykenzi has always amazed me, especially when she learns something new. We're always surprised by the things that such a young child can remember or do, but I guess that's because she's our oldest so our first up close experience of how the minds of children are like sponges. Last night though, Mykenzi totally surprised us both with something she decided to do on her own. During the last few months of my pregnancy with Camden, I spent a lot of time sitting (from being so uncomfortable and tired after just a few hours into the day) so I started trying to teach Mykenzi to write the alphabet, numbers, and shapes through the use of dotted lines. She seemed to get the concept somewhat, but never took off on just writing any of these herself, except circles which she already knew how to do prior to that, and she did learn the letter M. So I just let it go, figuring I was pushing too much on her before she was ready (after all she was not even 3 when I started that). Occasionally now we will do that exercise, where I write letters, numbers, or shapes with dotted lines and she traces behind me, but only when she requests me to do that for her. This brings me to the point of my story. Last night while I was reading a book (after Camden had gone to bed and Mykenzi was still going too strong from a later than usual nap), and she found a cookbook, got some paper and a pen from Daddy, and sat up on the couch next to me. I hadn't given this much thought, and out of no where she yells, "Mommy, I made a one!!" I looked over and what I saw was actually a capital I, but the style of the number one in the book looked just like this 1, so that's what she tried to do. I went along with it once she explained, and encouraged her to try a 2, still not thinking anything of this because the 1 is fairly simply, but I'm not kidding, she drew a two. The bottom line is a little short, but it's definitely a 2. Then she drew a 3, and attempted a 4 that looks just like that one in the book and remarably close on the paper, and proceeded to draw a very recognizable 5, not so much for the 6 which only I recognize because I knew what she was trying to do, and a 7. She was getting frustrated with numbers 8 and 9 so she never got those, but I can't believe she was writing numbers just by looking at them in one book and writing on another paper. How amazing! I just hope she's always this eager to learn!

Practicing again...

It seemed like a fairly decent (warmer than average) day at home, so we decided to take the kids to Colonial Beach so I could practice with my camera. We forgot to take into account the wind and cooler temperatures by the river, but the kids cooperated and at the end we let Mykenzi play on a playground so we were all happy. I know I still have so much to learn, but I had so much fun and I actually got a few shots that I really love, and I even learned more in the process so it was well worth it.

***

Now the playground is in sight so Mykenzi had only one thing on her mind.

I wish I could have seen Camden's face too.

I may have to have this one printed. I love it!

Sadly looking over at the playground now!

Tried a camera tilt here, but I think I tilted too much. I could have edited this one, but for some reason I still like it like this. The glare on his bright yellow jacket hurts my eyes the more than the tilt though.

She's off to the playground!

I love this picture!

I take tons of pictures of the kids on a daily basis, and I've been trying very hard to get better at it, as this is something I love to do, but would like to see much better quality. I took this one of Mykenzi yesterday, and while it's no where near professional photography, I LOVE this picture and I think I'm finally starting to figure things out. I just need to keep reading and practicing, which is tough to do with an active preschooler and a crawling infant. I think I need older subjects!